Product Description

This Companion illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic work 1660 to 1710. Twenty–five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time.

• Introduces readers to the recent boom in scholarship that has revitalised Restoration drama
  
• Explores historical and cultural contexts, genres of Restoration drama, and key dramatists, among them Dryden and Behn

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1184466 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 472 pages

Review
"The book will serve its audience very well, and those needing further guidance will profit from the list of further reading at the end of each essay. Highly recommended for academic libraries, the volume will be especially helpful to upper–division undergraduate and graduate students."
Choice

"[...] the riches of Susan Owen′s book are sufficient to ensure it a place on anyone′s list of essential reading on Restoration Drama."
Notes and Queries

From the Back Cover
This Companion illustrates the vitality and diversity of dramatic work between 1660 and 1710. Twenty–five essays by leading scholars in the field bring together the best recent insights into the full range of dramatic practice and innovation at the time. Contributors examine well known genres such as Restoration sex comedy in a new light, and explore other genres such as heroic plays, satirical comedy, sentimental ′she–tragedy′, tragi–comedy and political tragedy.

The three sections of the volume address the diverse aspects of Restoration Drama. The first situates the drama in its theatrical and social contexts and examines changing responses to Restoration drama from the eighteenth century to date, the second explores the wide range of dramatic genres, and the final section offers an introduction to the playwrights, including the first women dramatists. Coverage of the best known dramatists is balanced by attention to lesser known authors and plays.

About the Author
Susan J. Owen teaches in the Department of English Literature at the University of Sheffield. She is the author of Restoration Theatre and Crisis (1996) and Perspectives on Restoration Drama (forthcoming), as well as numerous articles and essays on Restoration drama, a piece on Andrew Marvell and a theoretical article, ‘Chaos Theory, Marxism and Literature; (new formations, 1996). She has also edited A Babel of Bottles: Drink, Drinkers and Drinking Places in Literature (2000).